The retailer, still reeling from a massive security breach affecting millions of customers, now has acknowledged an unidentified number of recently sold gift cards were not properly activated.

Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder couldn’t provide details on the number of gift cards affected, where they might have been sold or whether the problem occurred throughout the chain.

“I’m not going to be able to answer all of your questions with the level of specifics you requested,” Snyder said. “What I can tell you is that we are aware that some Target gift cards were not fully activated and apologize for the inconvenience.

“The numbers that have been reported in the media are much higher than what we experienced, as the actual number of cards impacted was less than 0.1 percent of the total sold during the holiday period.”

Snyder did not provide the number the company sold.

Target is honoring the cards affected by the activation error, she said.

When a customer discovers a gift card has not been activated, he can take it to a store guest service desk or call 1-800-544-2943 for assistance, Snyder said.

The number is answered with five recorded voicemail options, none of which referred to the activation problem. Pressing 5, or “anything else” for the reason behind the call, brings another menu of options.

Pressing 3 at that point gets the caller in the queue to speak to a gift-card representative. The voicemail message warned there would be a wait.

Contacted again, Snyder said speaking to the representative is the best way to proceed by phone.

About two weeks ago, Target announced it was hit with a security data breach affecting an estimated 40 million debit and credit card holders who shopped Target between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

“It’s another black eye that makes you question the internal operating procedures of Target,” Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors told The Associated Press. “Target needs to be doing everything perfectly. It can’t afford to lose any more confidence among its guests.”

Target on Friday said the data theft included debit-card personal identification numbers, PINs, but they were encrypted.

“The PIN information was fully encrypted at the keypad, remained encrypted within our system, and remained encrypted when it was removed from our systems,” a Target news release said. “To help explain this, we want to provide more context on how the encryption process works. When a guest uses a debit card in our stores and enters a PIN, the PIN is encrypted at the keypad .... Target does not have access to nor does it store the encryption key within our system.

“The PIN information is encrypted within Target’s systems and can only be decrypted when it is received by our external, independent payment processor. What this means is that the ‘key’ necessary to decrypt that data has never existed within Target’s system and could not have been taken during this incident.”

Fewer than 8 percent of cards issued to account holders at Amarillo National Bank’s were affected by the security breach, Vice President William Ware said.

“We do have customers that were involved in the breach, and we have informed all of them they were on a list provided to us by Visa,” Ware said. “We have sent replacement cards to those customers and put all the accounts on watch here at the bank. There’s going to be card numbers at every bank in town that are on the list.

“It’s important to move fast, and I’m sure other banks in town have, as well.”

The bank has not seen any fraudulent transactions due to the breach, Ware said.